Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, the legendary Rock n Roll Express, recently sat down together with Steve and the Scum on WGD Weekly for a very candid interview. Ricky and Robert discussed all stops in their great career during their time on WGD Weekly. You can listen to the entire interview above, here are some highlights from the 40+ minute chat:
Their initial thoughts on seeing the Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) in the AWA and working with them early in their careers:
Robert: “You know, they were a little chip off of the Midnights [Midnight Express] and a little chip off the Rock n Rolls, they kind of put the names together, but everybody knew that we were the originals.”
Ricky: “Marty and Shawn were good friends of ours. To me when they did it, I took it as a compliment. Shawn Michaels was with us in Louisiana when we were down there, he was just a young kid. Shawn learned a lot from Robert and I, he rode with us a lot. We took our time with him. They were a great tag team. Robert and I had great matches with them, we enjoyed working with them.”
Ric Flair being greatest World Champion of all time:
Ricky: “You have different areas in this business and you have different companies and you meet a lot of world champions. You meet Hulk Hogan, and you meet all these guys, but it’s my opinion that Ric Flair was the best World Heavyweight champion this business has ever had. Ric lived his gimmick, Ric was Ric, when he stepped in that ring and the people paid to see him, buddy, he made sure you got your money’s worth. In the house shows, if wasn’t going an hour time limit, he went fifty nine minutes in the match. He always gave people want they wanted, he still does. Let me tell you, I was with Ric the other night, and he is still Ric Flair. For me it was just a great pleasure to have the great opportunity, just to work with Ric.”
The incredible popularity of the team in their Crockett Promotions days:
Robert: “I knew it was wild, when we went to a place called Carowinds in South Carolina, a big amusement park. We went there and they came up to us and said, ‘guys, we really appreciate you being here, but you have got to leave. The whole park is at the exit, waiting for you to come out.'”
Ricky: “We were rock stars, and we didn’t even know it. The business was different then. Every event we went to, we we broke attendance records. It wasn’t just us, there were a lot of us involved. One of the great eras on this business was to be around at that time. It kept on and on and on, especially going into the small towns. Then, you had an “A” team and a “B” team. Robert and I were the head of the “B” team. But, we sold out everywhere we went. It was a moment in life that passed us by real quick.”
The incredible run of single matches that Ricky had with Flair:
Ricky: “We had a pretty good, long, feud there. If you read his book, me and him went seventeen straight hour long matches, now that was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, then we did two on Sundays. But seventeen of them straight in a row. Then when that was over we did six that were an hour and a half matches, until I met him in Charlotte. He did the gimmick in the cage and Ric broke my nose, he messed my face up. It was a great deal and we drew a lot of people and I had a great time working with him, too.”
Differences between today’s tag team wrestling and over all product and the tag matches and wrestling product of their day:
Ricky: “A lot of people talk about tag team wrestling. They say tag team wrestling is dead. It’s not dead, there is just nobody out there that knows how to do it like the Rock-n Roll Express, and the Midnight Express did. At that time and in that era, every tag team were great workers, they just had different styles. I didn’t have a favorite, because they all were great workers to me.”
Thoughts on why they fell out of favor in WCW:
Ricky: “At that time, there was a turn of hands, when WCW started having people in the office like Herd, who has about as much business being in our business as me flying the space shuttle. So I guess I got a lot of heat with a lot of guys because they brought people in our business that thought they knew everything about the business, but didn’t know nothing.
“It’s still like that today in some places, I’m not knocking, I’m telling the truth. Before the York Foundation, I was caught and lost in the shuffle, because that’s when the money came, that’s when the contracts started, that’s when Time Warner, you know they had deep pockets, but they had people running the business that didn’t know what they were doing. I was lost in the shuffle. Robert got hurt. During that time they put me with the York Foundation. If you remember, when Robert was hurt, he was gone for about a year.
“But you know, the business changes. To tell you the truth, being a baby face for so long, it was hard to work as a heel. Crockett could have kept going, WCW could’ve kept going, not because of us, but just if they had somebody in there that knew what they were doing. You know, Eric Bischoff, he has never been in a ring. He doesn’t know what our business is about. Herd didn’t know what our business is about. I mean you bring a tag team in called the Ding Dongs, from Bellville. Please guys, please, and that was the era that we were talking about.”
